A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great and strong people; there has not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, through the years of many generations.

A fire devours before them; and behind them a flame burns: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

Behold, I am weighted down under you, as a cart is weighted down that is full of sheaves.

Thus says the LORD; As the shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and on the edge of a couch.

I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have you not returned unto me, says the LORD.

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.

Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, says thus: Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmer to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to wailing.

As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.

But let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells in it? and it shall rise up wholly as the river; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the river of Egypt.

And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon every waist, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it like the mourning of an only son, and its end as a bitter day.

And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell in it shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like the river; and shall be drowned, as by the river of Egypt.

Are you not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? says the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up its breaches; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will rebuild it as in the days of old:

Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there will I bring you down, says the LORD.

In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even you were as one of them.

For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations: as you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head.

For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had never been.

Therefore they cried unto the LORD, and said, We beseech you, O LORD, we beseech you, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.

And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be split, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

Even of late my people have risen up as an enemy: you pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by trustingly, as men returning from war.

I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as sheep in a fold, as the flock in the midst of their pasture: they shall make a loud noise because of the multitude of men.

Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves in an evil way in their deeds.

Now why do you cry out aloud? is there no king in you? is your counselor perished? for pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.

But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarries not for man, nor waits for the sons of men.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: which, if it passes through, both treads down, and tears in pieces, and none can deliver.

Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit.

Then she that is my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto me, Where is the LORD your God? my eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

Feed your people with your staff, the flock of your heritage, who dwell alone in the forest, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

As in the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto them marvelous things.

For while they are entangled together as thorns, and while they are drunk as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

For the LORD will restore the excellence of Jacob, as the excellence of Israel: for the plunderers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

It is decreed: she shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maidens shall lead her as with the moaning of doves, beating upon their breasts.

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen press proudly on, their horsemen shall come from afar; they shall fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.

They shall all come for violence: their faces are set like the east wind, and they shall gather captives as the sand.

Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as sheol, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him all people:

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

And his brightness was as the light; he had rays flashing out of his hand: and there was his power hidden.

You did thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was like devouring the poor secretly.

And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.

And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh like refuse.

Therefore as I live, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of weeds, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall plunder them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

Thus says the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,

Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, have not brought forth: but from this day will I bless you.

In that day, says the LORD of hosts, will I take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and will make you as a signet ring: for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts.

Be you not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Turn you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, says the LORD.

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our deeds, so has he dealt with us.

And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle in it:

Come, come, and flee from the land of the north, says the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven, says the LORD.

And the LORD shall inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,

And to speak unto the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, consecrating myself, as I have done these so many years?

Yea, they made their hearts as a flint stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts has sent by his Spirit through the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

Therefore it has come to pass, that just as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, says the LORD of hosts:

But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the LORD of hosts.

And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.

For thus says the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the LORD of hosts, and I relented not:

The burden of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach, and will rest upon Damascus: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.

And Tyre did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.

As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit in which is no water.

When I have bent Judah as my bow, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man.

And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and roar as with wine; and they shall be filled with blood like bowls, and like the corners of the altar.

And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the jewels of a crown, lifted up as a banner over his land.

Ask of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to everyone grass in the field.

For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.

My anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the leaders: for the LORD of hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and has made them as his royal horse in the battle.

And they shall be as mighty men, who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses shall be put to shame.

And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to restore them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.

And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as with wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.

I will signal for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they once increased.

In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo.

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them as gold is tested: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, They are my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with him.

Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law.

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him.

For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

And Solomon begat Rehoboam; and Rehoboam begat Abijah; and Abijah begat Asa;

And Asa begat Jehoshaphat; and Jehoshaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Uzziah;

Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

Therefore when you give your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Be not therefore like them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.